Political Correctness as practised in Natchez, Mississippi

Hi Baboon Pirates regulars. I’m Nelly and I’ve been reading El Capitan for some time now. I found his blog through the late and sadly missed Acidman. A while back ol' El Capitan mentioned he hadn’t many readers from Europe. Hopefully this is about to change.

I’ve never been to Texas. The closest I ever got was Natchez. That was quite a few years ago when we were travelling around the South. We were in this bar and got talking to a really friendly guy called Tommy. He had caught my eye because he seemed to know everybody and was hopping around chatting to everyone. The hoppy thing was a bit odd but the reason became obvious when I saw the empty left leg of his Levis tucked into his back pocket.

It turned out he was a Vietnam veteran. He went out at age 18 and lost his leg to a mine and that was the end of the war for him. We had a good chat with him and a few others in the bar. Before we left Tommy told us that every Thursday the regulars from the bar got together for a barbecue. He said we'd be very welcome to come. We would have liked that but we were running a very tight itinerary. So, because we were leaving next morning, we had to decline. But before we left the bar I asked Tommy to recommend somewhere for breakfast.

Next morning we went to the place he'd suggested and it was pretty good. The lady who ran it was very pleasant and friendly. I told her that we'd had a recommendation from a local and she was very interested to know who this could be.

"Guy called Tommy."

"Tommy? Can't think who that would be."

"Tall man, white hair, slim, neatly trimmed beard, glasses."

"Nope. Can't think who that would be. Where'd you see him?"

"We met him in a bar."

She frowned a bit at this. But I pressed on. There was only one more thing I could add.

"He only had one leg."

"Oh yes! Thomas! Thomas the Cripple!"